London, June 18 (Reuters): Jailed British author and former Conservative Party deputy chairman Jeffrey Archer has been granted parole and will be released next month, the parole board said today.

Archer, 63, author of international bestsellers such as Kane and Abel and Honour Among Thieves, was jailed for four years in July 2001 for perjury and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. He will be released on or around July 19, which is exactly half way through his sentence, said a parole board spokeswoman.

Archer will have to observe conditions such as behaving himself and paying regular visits to his parole officer, she added. Archer, reported to be worth some £60 million ($100 million), was convicted of lying in a 1987 libel case against the Daily Star tabloid newspaper which had accused him of having sex with a prostitute.

Archer won £500,000 in damages against the newspaper, money he repaid last year after his perjury conviction.

No stranger to controversy, Archer broke prison rules during his incarceration by publishing a book A Prison Diary  Belmarsh Hell about his initial experiences in a top security jail before being moved to an open prison.